Yahoo Finance Could The Market Be Wrong About Molina Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:MOH) Given Its Attractive Financial Prospects?
It is hard to get excited after looking at Molina Healthcare's (NYSE:MOH) recent performance, when its stock has declined 26% over the past three months. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Molina Healthcare's ROE today.
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
See our latest analysis for Molina Healthcare
How To Calculate Return On Equity?
ROE can be calculated by using the formula:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Molina Healthcare is:
25% = US$689m ÷ US$2.8b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2022).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.25 in profit.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?
We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. Assuming all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.
A Side By Side comparison of Molina Healthcare's Earnings Growth And 25% ROE
To begin with, Molina Healthcare has a pretty high ROE which is interesting. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 16% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. Under the circumstances, Molina Healthcare's considerable five year net income growth of 38% was to be expected.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Molina Healthcare's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 18% in the same period, which is great to see.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. What is MOH worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether MOH is currently mispriced by the market.
Is Molina Healthcare Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Given that Molina Healthcare doesn't pay any dividend to its shareholders, we infer that the company has been reinvesting all of its profits to grow its business.
Summary
In total, we are pretty happy with Molina Healthcare's performance. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see substantial growth in its earnings. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company's fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst's forecasts page for the company.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
